Metal Golem
by kat-chan2
Summary: Just my take on what the machine Kel fought in Squire is and how it's related to the quest the Chamber sent her on. Also how she completes this quest. If I'm not supposed to post this kind of speculation I will take it down.


A/N: well, this is my first fan fiction that I put on the net. *cheers* Well living in Australia I only managed to get a copy of "Squire" a few weeks ago, Christmas Eve to be exact. *cheers again* Anyway I don't own any of the characters that appear in here, they all belong to the esteemed Tamora Pierce. *claps in reverence* Also, this is my last note, this is story works based upon my assumption, please correct me if I'm wrong and I will fix it, that the Yamani people are the same as the Japanese people and therefore speak the same language, etc. Oops! Ok I have one more note, this takes place a few weeks after the events of "Squire."  
  
  
  
Metal Golem  
  
'Mama?' The voice that had haunted her dreams and now invaded her waking moments.  
  
Kel raised her sword and continued her motions, slashing at the invisible foe and bringing the sword around to protect her head. Kel had always practiced with her glaive every morning when she was a page and as a squire and now being a knight was no excuse for her to be slack. Thus she had decided to practice with the sword, running through the drills and patterns before bed as well.  
  
She finished the drill she was working on and closed her eyes. Breathing in and out in slow motions, calming and cooling herself before her next set. Opening her eyes she started through the 'Crescent Moon' drill. She had long ago discovered that like with her glaive practice, as she swung her sword in the set motions, it put her into a calm yet more alert state, rather like the state of meditation. She found that during these times she could devote part of her mind to other matters. Lately she found herself concentrating on that voice she had heard from the giant metal construction she had faced just prior to her ordeal.  
  
'Mama?' It was a child's voice that had come from the monstrosity, the voice of a lost child crying hopefully for its mother to come along to find and protect it. The voice that had come when Kel had struck it the first time with her war hammer and the voice that had come from the shapeless mist that had appeared when she had opened the metal of the things head.  
  
When they had told Sir Myles of their find and capture of the machine he had told them about, the Spymaster had come north to see it himself along with Master Salmal(n. After initial inspection, the creature/machine was labeled as a metal golem. Master Salmal(n had also said it was a construct of both metal and magecraft though of what kind he could not yet begin to guess. He had left a few days later taking the metal golem with him in hopes of unlocking its secrets with the assistance of his many tomes of knowledge. Sir Myles had left before this hoping that his spies amongst the Scanran tribes might have been able to learn more or even have been able to infiltrate the army.  
  
Kel herself was too caught up with the battles that she had soon placed the memory of the metal golem to the back of her mind. It was pushed even further back when she was facing her Ordeal, but was in her Ordeal that it was brought back to the forefront of her mind. The pile of beaten children, their lifeless bodies at the feet of the twelve metal golems. What bothered Kel the most about the scene was that she could do nothing about it. No, that wasn't correct she could, and was supposed to stop that weakly little man but she couldn't charge out to stop him, instead as the Chamber had said, she had to wait and it would find her. That prospect scared her more than the thought of having to go and fight more of those creatures. What if they caught her unprepared? How many people would die because of her lack of vigilance? Hence the second reason to the addition in her workout plan.  
  
Kel raised her sword a final time and ended her drill. She then took a soft cloth and cleaned the gleaming blade. She smiled at the remembrance of who gave her this sword, Sir Alanna, the first Lady Knight. It was a true blade of the finest Yamani steel, exactly like the metal of her glaive. Created through the process of folding a weight of steel a thousand times upon itself, thus creating a blade so sharp that one needed to only drop a strand of hair on its edge for the hair to be split. Indeed that was the final test the blacksmith performed on the blade before it was deemed of sound quality. But even those did not meet quality were still considered of fine workmanship and sharper than most blades produced in the East.  
  
She sheathed the sword and placed it on a rack under the ones where she kept her glaive and her practice glaive. Walking to the washbasin her washed her face and arms before changing into her nightshirt and climbing into bed. As she closed her eyes, she thought of Cleon teaching those boys how to fight up north, but as always her thoughts were invaded by that voice calling: 'Mama?'  
  
Kel found herself at Fief Mindelan, she was with her nieces and nephews, they were playing at the edge of the River Domin. Skipping stones across the water to be exact as Kel told them about what life was like at court. Lachran paid the most attention to these tales as he was going to be a page the following season. In fact to the dismay of their mother two of nieces were considering following in Kel's footsteps once they were old enough. Kel laughed when Lachran stated that he wanted to swim in the River, the last that he would swim in it before he came back as man. The boy stripped down to his undergarments before wading into the shallow waters. In fact they only came up to the boy's shoulders at the deepest part in this section. His actions were promptly followed by his siblings who took off after him with Kel watching on the banks.  
  
Suddenly the river turned red with blood and to Kel's horror, the battered bodies of the children washed up on the banks, all the children but Lachran. The boy stood on the opposite bank crying in the same voice as the metal golem.  
  
'Mama? Mama? Mama? Mama? Mama? Mama? Mama? Mama? Mama? Mama?'  
  
Kel tried to move from her sitting position to reach the boy and bring him back to the house, but she found herself frozen in place. Forced to just watch as the boy's cries continued and when she saw the figure of a metal golem appearing behind him, she found she had no voice to cry out to him either.  
  
As the dark shadow appeared over the boy, he stopped his cries to look above him and instantly froze in terror. The metal golem reached down and picked the boy up. Lachran's began to scream in terror and when he saw Kel on the bank he began calling for her to help him and began crying when he saw she did not move.  
  
She struggled further to free herself from her frozen position but again found she could not move. Her heart broke in two when she heard Lachran's anguished cry and saw the hurt look in his eyes when she did not aid him. A look she followed as his body fell and landed on the hard bank. Kel heard the sound of his bones breaking upon impact as his scream was abruptly cut off.  
  
She found herself free to move and ran towards her nephew. Once there she saw, as she had known she would that the boy was dead, his eyes now glazed staring into the sky and in them Kel saw herself and her guilt at his death.  
  
The bodies vanished and Kel found herself alone with the metal golem and her war hammer in hand. She ran in blind anger at the machine hitting it with the blunt end of her weapon as she ran past it. She clambered up the tree beside it as the creature slowly turned around to catch her with its hand. Watching its actions Kel realised that this metal golem did not seem as aware as the one she had faced at Forgotten Well. It acted more like a sleeper just awakening and trying to orient him or herself. Jumping from the tree she landed on its shoulder. Wedging her feet in metal crevices, she raised her war hammer above her head to bring down a killing blow. She brought down the weapon and struck the metal, the metal golem abruptly changed to become her nephew, Lachran. Kel released her weapon with a cry, the sharp point clearly stuck in the boy's head. She looked down at her hands and saw that it was covered in blood.  
  
Looking around her she saw countless bodies of children, each of them battered and bloody. Beyond them she saw metal golems each one dropping another dead child onto the growing pile before joining the ranks of those metal golems already lined and waiting. In front of them, like a general directing his troops stood the small man in his musty robe. He turned to face Kel and looked straight at her, his eyes no longer bewildered but glinting with malice and his mouth curved into a smirk as he pointed behind her.  
  
Kel turned slowly, to see a metal golem rising out of the ground. This one was larger and carried a large sword in its hands. Its mouth opened and it snapped it razor teeth at her. Kel found herself frozen in place, unable to move an inch or even cry out. It raised its sword and just before bringing it down it spoke.  
  
"Mama?"  
  
Kel found her voice at that moment and screamed.  
  
  
  
Final ramblings: well that's it. The first chapter. This was actually meant to be a one-shot thing, but I got stuck after that point so I guess it's becoming chaptered. *shrug* Oh, the sword techniques were taken from "Alanna: the first adventure" Well please review, comments, criticisms even flames. I need all I can get if I want to get better. If you have any questions or just want to review without others seeing what you say, send it to my email: kat_chan11@hotmail.com 


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